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Pain when picking up Sadie

Quite concerned, Sadie has done this a couple of times recently, last night when going upstairs she paused, when i helped her up gently with my foot, she crys out,i tried to pick her up and yelps no matter how cautious i am with her, she is eating and drinking, not really herself though, and always loves her walks, but wants to come home, she just won,t tolerate me picking her up,she sleeps upstairs with me, i don,t know if she will get up there, she is 8 years old,but very active for a cavalier, she runs very fast, i,ve had her 15months now, as a rescue, but since i,ve had her shes done this 4 or five times, but following day shes usually better.But wondering if this could be anything to do with her spine?.See how she goes tomorrow. Karen,Ruby and Sadie xxx

I'm sorry Sadie is having problems. My Sydney had a herniated disc in his neck and arthritis down his spine. There were days that it was painful and difficult for him to walk. I had pain medicine for him when it was bad. I don't remember if Sadie had any medical problems when you rescued her, but maybe your vet could do an x-ray and possibly give you some pain medicine and see if that helps. Otherwise, I would suggest a visit to a neuro for an MRI.

Sorry to hear this Karen, it definitely Needs investigating. There are lots of possibilities before we all jump to the diagnosis of CM/SM (syringomyelia), but please also have a look at http://sm.cavaliertalk.com and http://www.cavaliermatters.org, to familiarize yourself with the symptoms.

Pain on being picked up and shoulder pain have been first indicators to me on several dogs unfortunately. However it may even just be a soft tissue injury.

Get the vet to check her over, and take a note of anything else you have noticed too.

Even if it does turn out to be CM/SM, many dogs are successfully managed for years, especially if they are only showing symptoms at an older age.

Agree with the above. Definitely this is a trip to the vet matter -- to start eliminating the possibilities and hopefully find the problem. This would be typical behaviour for several things -- hence the need to carefully explore the most likely and easiests to diagnose issues first. Yur vet will likely wish to do an xray s a starting point. When my SM-free Lucy acted like this it was disk disease and once allowed to resiolve she never had any issues again. I would block access to the stairs with a baby gate and do not let her jump onto furniture -- an xpen can be very useful for managing in this way, Lift her carefully up and down. A vet is likely to prescribe painkillers and crate rest for a couple of weeks to see ho she does. The vet will likely also check hip and knee joints too. But that level of all over pain would seem to indicate the spine -- either disk disease that needs management or potential CM/SM. In a dog that age and depending on heart they may wish to simply try meds for disk disease and then if that doesn't work, start with Clare's CM/SM treatment algorithm.

But you will def need to start carrying her upstairs and placing her in her crate or on the bed or wherever she sleeps -- would not allow her to even try stairs any longer on her own until you can figure out what is going on, treat her and get the OK from the vet. If it's disk disease doing stairs may make it worse.

Lucy was banned from stairs, jumping onto furniture, walks etc. until she had meds and crate rest for about two weeks when she had disk disease and then had no problem with any of the above after that. I do advise pet stairs too. Hyperdrug.co.uk (pet supplies and meds) have nice little stairs as do many other places. I have about three sets of steps in my house as two cannot any longer jump onto furniture or the window seat.

Thank you all for your advice,will arrange a vet visit very soon,away for a couple of days to see daughter, have a good friend looking after my girlies,i tucked her up last night downstairs, she seemed a little perkier this morning, i even picked her up and put her in the car, extremely carefully, and walked her by the river casually for 30 minutes, took her back to the car, lifted her in and out very carefully,not too bad, she allows me to rub and touch her neck quite vigourisly, she likes this. I,ve just sat down with lap top thinking she,s recovering, and she,s looking at me to get up on the sofa,she craves a lot of attention being a rescue, i,ve gone to lift her gently, and she,s screamed out again, oh god back n

Very sorry posted in era, as i was saying,oh god, back to square one, feeling so bad now, the thing is with sadie, she has a lot of issues being a rescue/ex breeder, she associates pain with humans, she hiding away in hallway,shes looking so scared,i feel really bad, do you think i have walked her too long, shall i get my friend to just let her walk for a few minutes to relieve herself, until i get back. In my opinion these episodes have always happened on exertion, ie stairs jumping on sofa, usually she asks me to get on the sofa, her funny talk, approvel, and i have always picked her up, the last week or two i have been patting the sofa, encouraging her to jump up with out asking, i feel i,ve not allowed her to recover long enough, as she seemed a little better this morning. Will get back to you once Sadie has visited vet.Thank you all for letting me ramble on my concerns. Karen,Ruby and Sadie x